25 Feb 2024
Three years ago, future ‘Instagran’ Judith Leary-Joyce embarked on a home renovation at her Warwick Road property which was to change her life in a variety of ways. Not only did she end up with a luxurious new property built to exacting green standards, but she found herself embarking on a post-retirement career as author, speaker and blogger promoting the benefits of eco-renovation.
Her Damascan moment came when Judith and husband of 40 years John decided to knock down an old conservatory and build an extension in its place, a decision which was to lead them down a rabbit hole of environmentally-focused home improvements.
“We’d found a builder, and I remember distinctly it was the August after Covid had started, so we’d had the first big lockdown and we were still having to social distance. He walked through into the garden one Sunday afternoon and said I can either start on Thursday or it’ll be next April.”
At the time it was a case of taking down the conservatory and putting up a new room in its place, but Judith was concerned about creating an open plan space because of how much energy it costs to heat it.
She compromised with John to employ an eco-builder to design the project, which involved using wood fibre insulation, but when they were part way through the work the entire emphasis shifted.
“We were standing in here one day after the architect had come. He’d said this part [of the house] is going to be lovely because it would be warmed using a heat pump. He said the rest of your house is really leaky, but I think it will be good enough.
“I’m never keen on good enough. So that evening, John and I just sat in the middle of what was a complete building site, trying to work whether we were prepared to be good enough or not. We decided we weren’t.
“So the next morning we said to the builders that we were going to retrofit the rest of the house. Fortunately they were very flexible, but they were still ordinary builders, there are very few builders that know anything about this.”
The couple installed an air sourced heat pump, a piece of equipment that pushes air out so draughty spaces can be filled.
Although there still needs to be air flow the aim is to control this through a heat recovery ventilation system, which also stops the build-up of condensation.
“One of the big differences is air-tightness, which is essential, because if you just insulate you’ll still get drafts. What we have here is a bubble of heat, so you make sure you don’t open the door lots.”
Most of the house is kept warm using under-floor heating, but there are also radiators in a couple of rooms.
“Using an air source heat pump means it never gets as hot underfeet as ordinary underfloor heating. We primarily heat this room and that then heats the rest of the house, together with a towel rail in our en-suite and the other bathroom, and we have a nest thermostat which switches off automatically.
“The air source acts just like a gas boiler except you don’t keep switching it on and off. It’s the difference between a marathon runner and a sprinter. So a gas boiler is like a sprinter, it wakes up before you do in the morning and goes like the clappers, then goes cold again and does the same when you’re coming home.
“The air source heat is like a marathon runner, it goes at a slower speed at lower temperatures but it just keeps going steadily all the time. So it gets cooler in the evening and at night but it never goes off completely. Eventually it heats the fabric of the house, whereas the gas boiler heats the air, which means you get cold quickly but also warm quickly.
“What we learned during the summer is that when it gets really, really hot we have to open everything up at about six in the morning, and then close it down because it keeps inside and outside separate. So in the winter it keeps the cold out and in the summer it keeps the heat out. So on those 40 degree days last year we were fine.”
The house includes solar panels on the roof, but an existing garden office is set to be replaced with a new shed built with a south-facing roof to provide more solar energy, with a battery storing any excess.
As part of the overall retrofit of the house, they put in sustainable insulation on all of the external walls, took out the chimneys and installed triple-glazed windows where possible, with the whole project taking between 12-14 months as they did it in stages rather than as a whole.
“My nightmare was waking up in the morning and John saying he had another idea. My daughter had a retrofit done and it took six months as they moved out. If you stay in the property you can keep an eye on what’s going on but it takes a bit longer.”
She says the biggest lesson she learned was how worthwhile it was in terms of saving money on energy bills, with the construction completed before the prices of materials, gas and electricity all soared.
“We went from using 25,500 kilowatt hours a year before we did it and now we use just under 6,000. That’s a 75 per cent drop, so it’s absolutely worth it.
“We are also considerably more comfortable. I would have had about three layers and a scarf on during the winter, plus the big boot slippers and I’d still have been cold. So we’re more comfortable, it’s much cheaper to run and it’s better for the climate because 21% of UK emissions comes from leaky homes.
“You can now get a whole house plan done by an architect, which will tell you these are the things you need to do and the order to do them in. Because you need to be careful how you do it. You’re making a warm airtight box which is just going to get really moist because a family of four will produce 14 litres of vapour a day just by breathing, drying the washing, having a shower, cooking.
“So the airtight box will start condensing if you don’t put the ventilation in. The architects will create you a plan where you can do it safely and according to your budget.”
Because they had already planned to build the extension it’s hard to know exactly how much the project cost, but Judith estimates in the region of £30,000.
“We didn’t realise what a difference it would make in our lives, I didn’t set out to write a book, we didn’t know that this would become such a passion.”
But has the retrofit added value to their home?
“I got two different estate agents in to value it.
“One just asked where the internet points were, that’s all he wanted to know, not what we’d done to the house. The second one, his dad was a builder and he said he understood what we’d done and it was amazing. He valued the house at least £90,000 more than the other one did, and said he’d do a whole weekend show house and after that there would probably be a bidding war.
“So we’re warmed, we’re saving money on bills, our house is worth more and we’re helping the climate. I mean, I really don’t see a downside if you’ve got the money to do it.”
Her subsequent book, Beginner’s Guide to Eco Renovation, was a response to the project, not the reason behind it, and followed a lifetime spent campaigning for green issues.
“I feel so passionate about this. I’ve cared about the environment since the early ‘70s when it wasn’t trendy, but to anyone willing to look it was absolutely clear what we were doing to the planet. So I’ve always been trying to green my life. I didn’t feel I could go marching and then come home and be a polluter.
“When I realised the difference this was going to make I thought it was marvellous because it’s a major piece of climate action that has no sacrifice with it. Even people who don’t believe in climate change would still do this to save the money.
“I think the moment I first thought I’m going to need to write this up was when I found the word retrofit, as the whole thing opened up in front of me at that point.”
It was that terminology breakthrough which made all the difference to Judith, as before then she struggled to find the right words to Google for relevant information. But it also opened up fresh challenges, as she had to wade through complicated articles and data to find relevant information, something she wanted other people to avoid.
“I thought if I can just simplify this down, it will give people a start.
“Lots of people have also asked how do you find good builders? I think the reality is if we educate ourselves and we’re informed then we can join forces with the builders because they need educating too.
“I was thinking a book that gave people just enough confidence to ask the right questions of their builders would be useful. I then found an eco-inspired architect to mentor me through the whole process.
“So she read everything I wrote, added bits, took bits out, and taught me more. She said it was a real lesson to her how I’d written things simply and helped her see how she can sometimes befuddle people with the language she uses.
“Where we ran out of her knowledge, like about the air source heat pump and the glazing and stuff, then I went to those experts and said, ‘Look, will you read this through for me, make sure I’m saying the right things, tell me what I don’t understand?’ So I got lots of people to help me. It was a brilliant process, it really was.”
Perhaps the biggest surprise has been her growing social media following.
“The grandchildren now call me ‘Instagran’. A few months ago I had 311 followers, now I’ve got over 30,000.
“I was doing posts which I’ve now learned are not worth doing, it’s all reels now. The first one that took off was me emptying the dishwasher.
“Can you imagine? I was just saying, ‘Here’s a good idea, put your dishwasher up high with your cupboards next door so it’s easy to empty’. That’s had towards six million views.
“We’ve got a staircase up to the loft that’s on counterbalance weights so it just sits upon the ceiling until you pull it down. I did that one and that’s over 12 million views. So both of those have really kicked everything else off. I don’t think I’ll manage to repeat anything like that but it’s got me a following now, and really given me a platform to get the message out more.”
Aside from her eco-refit, Judith is constantly looking for new ways to push the environmental agenda.
“I don’t use plastic, I always use refill pantries. I won’t fly anymore, I’ve done more flying than I should have done and I think if there’s flying to be done then the young should do it now. I’ve had my time. So if we’re going anywhere we have to go on the train. But I’m still doing so much in my life now it’s hard to even know what’s next.
“We’ve always used natural medicines when we could, and we’re now half-arsed vegans. I’m half-arsed at all sorts of things but I’m doing my best. I’ve been a veggie for 50 years and in the
last four or five years, being as vegan as I can manage, but occasionally I have an egg.
“I like to cook everything from scratch, so I don’t buy any pre-prepared food because they’re in plastic. I drive the Waitrose staff mad by going with a box for my olives.
“I also try to educate my grandkids. My grandson said to me, ‘We do stuff about climate at school, but I know far more about it from you. The next generation are the key, but there’s still a lot that the old boomers can do.
“We’re often the ones with money, and part of our thinking was we want this house to be a legacy, so when we’re gone, whoever comes into it next, it still will be good for the environment. So there’s loads of boomers that could do that now.
“I can feel better by doing something, so the eco-warrior in me comes out to soothe the worrier, and at least then I feel I’m doing everything I can.”
A recent presentation Judith gave to St Albans Soroptimists can be downloaded here: Soroptimist retrofit talk Jan 2024 Judith Leary-Joyce, and a Zoom discussion here.
Find her book here and her blog here.
